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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

After I'm done making Biyomon, this is the next costume I'll be making. I want to have it done in time for Midwest Furfest and granted I get everything done in time I should be able to make this one for that. I'd hope I could have the OOO Driver by then too but not having great communication so far with the person I need to commission in order get a modified driver.

In the end I hope the leg padding won't be really awkward. The way I planned this out, the only body padding will be on the backside and the front of the leg. It isn't really "digitigrade padding" because he doesn't stand digitigrade unless he's running or walking...as a non-anthro, Anthro form he stands more plantigrade. The most similar thing I could relate it to (other than a grasshopper...who's legs are actually backwards) would probably be a kangaroo.

Anyways, had to simplify the stripes because my body is short and "stubby". Plus to sew as many stripes as I had on the original version just...no that's not gonna work. So less stripes but same feel to it. That nice wavy look. Even on the tail the stripes are simplified but I think it gives the same sort of feel and you won't mistake the character for someone else's. Stripes are just one of those things that it's hard to keep even. If I were to commission someone for their version of him, I'd probably just tell them that they can do whatever with his stripes so long as they keep the same basic flow of colors (especially from the yellow to the green). But for now, this is how I'm gonna make him.

I think the hardest part other than keeping the spots even (in actuality the body suit might be the easiest part to make), would probably be the feet/legs and the head. I need to figure out how I'm adding in those feelers. And the "spikes" on the back of his legs.

Anyways, I still need to make a ref for his arms and that's about it. His markings are symmetrical so I don't really need a full...everything view. I can figure out the rest fairly easily.

Ended up saving two versions. The one on bottom is initially how I paired the background colors with the character. The one on top is what the customer liked better. He wanted a Chinese New Year/Year of the Dragon theme and the red and gold worked better. After looking at it for a while, that background looks nicer than what I'd initially made anyways.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Well as complete as it will be for now. There still needs to be a little bit of tweeking (mostly on the inside of the mouth so the fleece will fit smoothly). Maybe minor tweeks on the outside of the beak too to smooth out bumps. But the full structure is now done. Aside from the feather on her forehead which will have wire as the main structure so I can get the curl.

Next step is putting together the structure for the body suit while I save for the material to fill this out (the fur and fleece).

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Spent some time today trying to fix up previous details such as the eyes and beak as well as add in more details to this.

I'd had the head shaped out for a few weeks now and hadn't touch this much because I felt a little stuck. Especially with how to do Biyomon's largest feathers on her head. Finally I figured out how I could do them so I tried it out. Took a bit of pinning at first, but once I got it all in place and glued it down it actually looked decent.

Also took some time and rounded out her cheeks. Since she has a static jaw, I can do a lot with her expression so eventually I'm gonna go back, add in more foam and shape it so she has a bit of a smile at least. Biyomon's such a cute character that it probably wouldn't be right if she didn't have a smile.

The beak still needs quite a bit of work anyways. At least on the left side of it. The right side is much smoother and looks better than the left. But aside from that and the smile, the next part is smoothing out the top of the head, fixing parts of the eyes (still) and adding in the four other feathers. Also still smoothing the inside of the beak and making sure the foam there is tightly glued together.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

I wasn't too keen on Discord's design in the beginning, but you have no idea how much fun it is to draw him. He's just...insane. His eyes, his facial structure, the various animal parts to his body...it's crazy.

His face was the best part to draw. So far he's the only MLP character that I've successfully drawn in my style. It actually might be easier to portray the male characters in my style rather than the female ones as I'm more inclined to want to use more equine faces on them. Not sure how "equine" this is but I tried as best as I could while trying to keep that crooked/bent look his muzzle has.

I felt this need to revamp Sombra's design. I put a lot of effort into how she looked before. And honestly there wasn't much physically that I wanted to change. But there was something that I felt I needed to change about her to make her more interesting.

I thought at first maybe that meant I wanted to drastically change her physical appearance. Trying to mix her with corded poodle or various other dog breeds to give her a more interesting coat type or to thin out her frame. Debating on what colors she should be.

In the end...I liked the colors that she had. The cream, red, and brown. I just wanted to rearrange them a bit. And for good measure I added in a bit of white. What I really wanted to change was her personality. She wasn't an interesting character before. I just gave her whatever personality I had on a given day. Which for the most part (if I'm not hanging out with friends) wouldn't make for a very interesting character. So personality wise, instead of having a personality 100% like mine, she has the personality of the sort of person I want to be rather than the one that I am. I ended up writing and rambling on the various things I wanted to get out of this character (things that I previously didn't think about), and just worked from there. Physically she isn't very different. The colors are the same. Just with the addition of the white spots and modifications on the brown markings and the split between her neck and torso markings.

This is just a temporary reference for now. I'm working on a full one that will include how she looks like in anthropomorphic form as well as various outfits that she likes wearing.

I think I'll keep Old Sombra around too just as a sort of juxtaposition between the person I am now and the person I want to be...something like that...if that made any sense.

Unfortunately my theme commissions didn't really take off. This was the only slot that filled so I just made them regular commissions. If people want to put a theme to them they can. I'm still waiting for a Super Sentai or Kamen Rider themed commission. I want at least one.

Anyways, the commissioner wanted their character drawn as a Persian. The wings and the fluffy tail are characteristic of this person's character though. This was cute and fun to work on. I do like "chibi" art a lot. It's just adorable.

As we can tell...I have fun drawing literal Tatoba. And each time I draw him he seems to get toonier. But that's a good thing I think. He looks really good toony.

The top WIP started out as a bit of vent art. I was feeling (and still feel to a degree) very stressed with the change from being in college to being thrust into the real world. So I drew my optimistic fursona (L. Tatoba) consoling Sombra. There was something I liked about the look of the shaded characters in this flat looking universe so I saved a WIP that looked like this. I've painted up the background a little more since then but it still needs to some more work.

Second is a plan for a future fursuit. I knew I wanted to make a fursuit based on my literal Ratoratah design. But I didn't want to make a male Ratoratah. Yeah, making the mane might be fun but I wanted to make a more female version of the design for me. So I cut the mane back into a mohawk. Unlike most of the anthropomorphic animals that I draw, I decided I didn't want to add any body padding to this. So she has plantigrade legs instead of digitigrade ones. And I want to make the feet fairly small since I want the suit to be pretty form fitting. And yes, I want that tail to be dragging on the floor like that.

I'll make a better, turn around reference for her when I get closer to starting this project. I've got about 2 or 3 ahead of this one. She's kinda on the back burner for other costumes (depending on what I want for the conventions I'm going to).

Sewing practice. I have plenty of fur and fur scraps left over from various other projects so I decided to try to make a tail.

I'm not all that happy with it. But it was nice sewing practice. Next time I do the belt loop I won't be using that style. Not to mention the tail turned out too small and I'm not happy with the purple and white heart marking. That looked better in my head than it turned out sadly.

But it was just practice so it's fine. I'll be better at it in my next projects.

I think the "name your own price" option for commissions is decent. It's a good way to start taking commissions. Thought I'd set up a price range chart for what types of pictures you can get for certain prices.

2) New years picture for FurrFreak. It was the first anthropomorphic picture I'd draw in a long while and I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out. Really love this guy's colors and the way his feathers were.

3) Badge for Aledaroth. I still need to get this printed, laminated and mailed out to him. I might not do too many badges until I get a good printer and laminating machine.

4) Chibi for ooSukioo. Complete with a Nyan Cat plushie.

I need to redo the prices however for these commissions. They will be raised in the future because for the work and time I put into these, the price is too low.

I'd drawn a literal version of the Tatoba combo as purely a joke and it was supposed to stay that way but...I didn't anticipate falling in love with my own design. So I wanted to draw him more, gave him a personality, and wanted to draw him under the influence of the Putotyra medals.

I also uploaded progress shots of this months ago but didn't finish this until recently (a few weeks ago). Most of my digital paintings take forever but I didn't mean for it to take so long. Class work got in the way of me finishing this before halloween so I could use it for an icon I can use it for an icon this Halloween though.

Mostly practice for 1) drawing a bird's beak from a front view, 2) semi-realism (drawing something "realistically" but not going all out on texture like I usually do, 3) drawing a semi-realistic literal Tatoba, and 4) lighting/shading. While I like doing realistic work, I think I prefer this way of painting it more. Mostly because it's more time efficient and it doesn't wear my hand out as much.

The eyes turned out more pink than purple but the effect still works just as well.

I don't know if I'll draw him under Putotyra's influence again. I like him much better as a happy character. Yeah, he's a joke character and thus technically "not mine", but I still gave him a personality and everything for fun. And I made him happy, optimistic, and a bit "derpy" (for lack of a better word). So for the most part he'll stay that way.

I dunno why but every time I look at this that's what comes to mind. That song from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Probably doesn't help that DJ's mix music and the word stereo's in there...

I might not be a hardcore pony fan, but that doesn't mean I don't like drawing the characters. Especially in my own style. I prefer it to Friendship is Magic style. Which isn't to say I draw it better. I just add in the details that I want to see is all (like hooves).

Anyways, love DJ Pon3's colors and expression and everything. She just looks cool. I was dying to draw in this toony style again so I did. Every now and then I'll break out this style. But I do want to figure out how to draw the ponies in my regular style instead.

A commission for Sibertyger on FA for a character design based off of a Tiger, a Red Fox and a Red Panda. After doing the OOO literal versions that I've done I was dying to try doing more hybrid characters and opened up a few slots for them. This is the only one that took but still it was good character design practice and ended up being a pretty cute character.

I do think after looking it over that maybe the body could be a little shorter but that's about it.

Getting back to uploading art here. I often forget about my own art blog or rather forget to update it so I'll try to regularly keep up with it and update it with what I've done so far.

Starting with two pictures done as freebies. One as a request started over the summer (the top one) for DaggerLeonelli of her character Akio shown two ways. I don't do requests. I decided to take a few over the summer and only offered over Twitter. If I decide to do it again, they'll only be offered over twitter. I hope people don't assume that I take requests because of that. But I'm always free to turn them down regardless. Besides, this was a fun albeit tough picture to draw and it turned out nice in the end.

Second was a gift for Chival on FA of her character of the same name. I just fell in love with that design. Especially the face and the back legs. I just had to draw her.